John McIntyre, whom James Wolcott calls "the Dave Brubeck of the art and craft of copy editing," writes on language, editing, journalism, and other manifestations of human frailty. Comments welcome. Identifying his errors relieves him of the burden of omniscience. Write to jemcintyre@gmail.com, befriend at Facebook, or follow at Twitter: @johnemcintyre. Back 2009-2012 at the original site, http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/mcintyre/blog/ and now at www.baltimoresun.com/news/language-blog/.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Not a gut course

In about half an hour I will walk into a classroom at Loyola and tell a group of students what they are in for in CM 361 Copy Editing. For those of you who have tuned in since last year's opening harangue, I repeat it here.

This is not a gut course. Writing is
difficult. It does not come to us as naturally as speech, and we have to spend
years learning it. Editing is even harder. We can write intuitively, by ear,
but we have to edit analytically.

But before we can even get to the
analytical aspect, we will have to work on grammar and usage, because if you
are like most of the six hundred students who have preceded you in this class,
you will be shaky on the fundamentals. You will have to learn some things that
you ought to have been taught, and you will have to unlearn some things that
you ought not to have been taught.

I must also caution you from the outset
that this course is appallingly dull. A student from a previous term complained
in the course evaluation that “he just did the same thing over and over day
after day.” So will you. Editing must be done word by word, sentence by
sentence, paragraph by paragraph, and we will go over texts in class, word by
word, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph. No one will hear you if you
scream.

I’m going to turn my back for a minute
so that anyone who wants to bolt can escape.

Now, if you are willing to stay—and
work—I can show you how it is done. I have been a working editor for more than
thirty years. I will explain basics of grammar so that you can shore up the
spots where you are shaky. I will advise you about English usage and point to
the places where you need to know that it is shifting. I will show you how to
identify the flaws in a text so that you can pick it up out of the gutter,
brush it off, clean it up, shave it, and make it respectable.

You are going to learn the craftsman’s
satisfaction of picking up a piece of prose and knowing when you are finished
with it that you have made it better—more accurate, more precise, clearer, more
effective.

Let me say it again. Youwillhave to work. You will have to be in
class, because editing is a craft. One learns it by performing it, not from
reading a textbook, and we will be performing serious editing in class.

I can’t make you into a full-fledged
editor in one semester—or even two, and who in the name of God would want to be
in a classroom with me for two semesters? But if you put in the time and work
with me, you will by semester’s end be a better writer because you will be a
sharper editor of your own work. And even if your editing skills are limited,
you will be miles ahead of your fellow students. In the valley of the blind,
they say, the one-eyed man is king.

So put in the time. My function here is
to help you—you know, I already know how to do this; I don’t need to do this
for me. So I will answer your questions and steer you to reliable references. I
can work with you individually during office hours and by appointment. One previous
semester, when we lost two weeks of class to winter storms, I came in on Sunday
afternoons to be available to answer questions and go over points of editing. I
can do that again.

One more thing. You may not care for my
manner or my sense of humor. Not every student has. But one of the reasons you
are in a university is to experience different personality types, different
senses of humor, different approaches to the world. I am not the only jackass
you will ever have to cope with in the adult working world, and one thing you
can do this semester is to sharpen your coping skills.

6 comments:

A bit from Blake's Jerusalem (the book that contains the hymn of the same name):

The Holiness of Minute Particulars

And many conversèd on these things as they labour'd at the furrow,Saying `It is better to prevent misery than to release from misery;It is better to prevent error than to forgive the criminal.Labour well the Minute Particulars: attend to the Little Ones,And those who are in misery cannot remain so long,If we do but our duty: labour well the teeming Earth. . .

He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars.General Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer;For Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars,And not in generalizing Demonstrations of the Rational Power:The Infinite alone resides in Definite and Determinate Identity.Establishment of Truth depends on destruction of Falsehood continually,On Circumcision, not on Virginity, O Reasoners of Albion!

You Don't Say

About the Author

John E. McIntyre, a veteran editor and teacher, is back in harness. He worked for nearly 23 years at The Baltimore Sun, for 14 of those years as head of its copy desk, and, after a one-year hiatus, has returned as night content production editor. He has taught copy editing at Loyola of Maryland since 1995. He was the second president of the American Copy Editors Society, serving two terms, and he has been a consultant on writing and editing at publications in the United States and Canada.